Taiwan; Mei Xiao
Taiwan, also known as Mei Xiao, got her name from her appearance. While Mei along can mean many things (Even eyebrows) she claims it only means beautiful and Xiao means small. This fits her petite pretty self, doesn’t it? The country itself used to be called Ilha Formosa which in Portuguese means “Beautiful Island”. When she was later put under Japanese ruling her name was changed to Takasago. Mei personally likes this name the best because it means “Advanced” or “Superior”. When Taiwan was under China’s rule her name was changed yet again to the one she holds now. Her birthday is on October 25th but Mei will secretly celebrate it on May 23rd because on that day Taiwan was not under China nor Japan’s rule. While technically Taiwan is considered a Scorpio (http://zodiac-signs-astrology.com/zodiac-signs/scorpio.htm) which actually describes her quite well but if anyone asked she would claim to be a Gemini (http://zodiac-signs-astrology.com/zodiac-signs/gemini.htm) which surprisingly and ironically describes her better. Taiwan has waist-length brown hair that is slightly wavy at the ends. On the left side of her head a long swirly curl sticks out. While people claim that curls on a personification is their E-zone (Which is often not the case) Mei’s curl represents the antenna in Taipei which provides free wifi to the country. When touched there is a weird disturbance in the internet connection and she claims this hurts or feels unsettling which turns her off greatly. Mei’s attire is quite simple and elegant. For the top part she wears a peachy pink qi-pao and for the bottom she wears a knee-length white skirt that covers the flower-shaped birthmark on her left thigh which near the rim has a thin pink line around the whole skirt. Although this is what she usually wears Taiwan has numerous outfits that all resemble what modern day teens would wear. She is always in style and will often judge people who are ‘trapped’ in clothing that is “Totally last season”. Despite Asians being usually tan in real life, Mei along with all her brothers, are said to have smooth pale skin which looks like the colour of milk (Bubble/boba) tea. Taiwan has large chocolate brown eyes and she hardly ever wears makeup. Occasionally she’ll put on lipstick but she says it washes off way too quickly and doesn’t see a point in wasting money on products like that. Even claiming to have said that Taiwan is quite a money waster and will buy just about anything and everything her eyes see and like. When people are around Taiwan they claim to smell the scent of cherry blossoms, that is probably emitted from perfume even though she’d refuse ever getting such a product (Because our noses make use get used to our scent we usually can’t spell ourselves which makes Mei believe the perfume disappeared). Taiwan is extremely addicted to the internet. If she’s not tweeting the last thing she ate she’s facebooking her plans for tonight. Because of this (unhealthy) addiction people often call her unreliable and lazy. Even so, Taiwan is quite energetic as well and likes things like consist singing, gardening, swimming, shopping, cooking, sword-fighting, surfing (the internet--) or dancing as well as cosplaying. Taiwan is said to have dancer legs and she believes they are her best feature. She spends time obsessing over their condition and makes sure they’re always moisturized, shaved and clear of scars, injuries or bruises. The features Mei is not so confident and praising about is her very small breast size and height. She stands at 4 ft 11 in. She will often go to Monaco for reassurance about it in hope that one day she can have confidence in her whole body. Because of her past (Such as being pulled out of the UN) she is very insecure and does just about anything to fit into the crowd which is mainly why she is so obsessed about keeping in style and concerned about how she looks. Mei is also obsessed with her country’s famous creation of bubble, or boba, tea which has spread across the countries and is highly profitable. She prefers milk tea over green tea and likes mango or taro flavour most. Taiwan is said to drink extremely quickly whether it’s with bubble tea, water, juice or even alcohol like sake. She does occasionally drink but she cannot hold liquor down very well or even at all. Taiwan is a very hyper and childish young girl despite her age of 18. Even though Mei is usually sweet and happy she has a very quick temper and a foul mouth with it. While she often refers to China as teacher on the drama CD when agitated she calls him bastard or idiot which was shown in earlier illustrations. Other parts of Taiwan’s bundle of personalities she’s also hip, outgoing and upbeat. Although she’s energetic and all Mei often complains about feeling old; this is because her country has a very low birth rate (0.9) and a high aging rate. Her country is aging at an alarming rate and producing at a concerning rate which makes her feel older than she actually is and often makes her get back pains or sores much like Japan. Taiwan is also extremely scared of horror movies especially the one’s Japan produces. She claims one day she’ll get a heart attack because someone as “old” as her should not be getting such scares in this life time. She has a tendency to worry way too much over the little things. Family wise, Taiwan is on good terms with everyone. Like any family they do have their issues such as Korea’s constant energy and groping (Along with him claiming everything to be his work), Hong Kong’s lack of communication, China’s constant nagging mainly about how Mei forgets her table manners and that Mei claims Kiku to be is perfect but she’s annoyed that he won’t accept her hand in marriage but she is also somewhat scared of Japan because some days he would come home covered in blood. She was always too scared to ask and know who the blood belonged to. Taiwan complains the most about Korea but this might be because she still holds a grudge against him. While they were kids Im Yong Soo and Mei had a very tight friendship together but when Korea sided with China in 1992 Taiwan felt extremely betrayed and have not let go of it. As mentioned above, Taiwan is quite intrigued in sword fighting. Sword fighting’s origin is from Spain. In 1626-1629 Spain battled the Dutch for possession of Taiwan. The Spanish won the battle and ruled northern Taiwan until 1642. Since Spain helped raised Mei he later taught her how to sword fight which eventually turned into one of her favourite hobbies to this day.